Misunderstandings
by LovingHate
Summary: Misty has always hated her classmate Gary, and the entire school of Oak High knows it. But when a teacher gets tired of their constant arguing and silly antics, Misty and Gary are forced to attend weekly guidance counseling sessions. Egoshipping.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Another Egoshipping project I'm working on. I want to see if this will be more liked than The Right Kind of Wrong, or if its the other way around. Unlike The Right Kind of Wrong, Misunderstandings is face paced but will still be a rather long story.. if anyone likes it. I'm trying to add more comedy to it, but I honestly don't think I'm that funny.. Anyways. Egoshippers, enjoy! :]

* * *

**Misty Waterflower has always despised her classmate Gary Oak, and the entire school of Oak High knows it. But when a teacher gets tired of their constant arguing and silly antics, Misty and Gary are forced to attend weekly guidance counseling sessions. .egoshipping.**

* * *

_**Misunderstandings.**_

by LovingHate

* * *

**Her name was Misty Waterflower.**

And everyone knows the three- now four things she hates most.

Bugs.

Ketchup.

Mushrooms.

And Gary Oak.

Sure, he was at the bottom of the list, but _he was still on the list_. And there are many reasons why he is. Exhibit A:

It was first period and right when the late bell rings, everyone knows the drill in Ms. Ketchum's class. Sit down and prepare for the weekly Monday English quiz. Misty had studied her butt off over the weekend, but she was ready. Everything on the first act of Romeo & Juliet was burned into this red-head's memory... for the time being. As the quiz paper landed on her desk, she stole a glance at the empty desk all the way in the back. The _only_ empty desk. A sigh left her lips as the door flung open; she already knew what was going to happen next.

"Sorry I'm late Ash's Mom, the ladies just can't get enough of me," Gary Oak strolled in, wearing a pair of black sunglasses and a girl around both arms.

"It's alright, Gary, your quiz is on your desk. You can start anytime you'd like." Ms. Ketchum smiled.

"Hah, I knew you're understand Ms. K."

Gary pecked both girls on their cheeks and then went to his seat. He took off the sunglasses and at last noticed the red-haired girl angrily eyeing her. His smirk invited her, but Misty rolled her eyes and turned to her friend Ash.

"I can't belive him," she hissed to him. "He only gets special treatment because his grandfather's the Principal."

"Yeah, he's a jerk," the black-haired boy agreed, adjusting the cap on his head.

"Shh!" Ms. Ketchum hissed. "No talking during a quiz!"

Misty grumbled something under her breath sounding like 'Gary gets to talk during the quiz..' and tried to block out her frustration for a moment so she could answer the questions. At the end of the quiz, Ms. Ketchum collected the papers, stoping confusedly at Gary's desk.

"Gary, you only answered one question," she said. "And it's wrong.."

A light snicker came from Misty. Some girls shot threatening looks at her.

"Yeah I know," Gary casually sighed, "I didn't have time to study. Had a busy schedule, Ms. K." He ran his hand through his hair and leaned back, smirking up at the teacher. "I'll just take it tomorrow."

Ms. Ketchum looked stuck, she'd never given any student that priviledge. "Well, I don't think so..." She sounded unsure.

"Well if you're so uncertain, maybe we should call my Gramps in. He'll sort this out."

"No! That won't be necessary, you can take your quiz tomorrow.."

"What?" Misty grumbled, her hand tightened around a pencil. _'This moron has too much control. Something has to be done.'_

"Speaking of tomorrow..! Kids, I'm going off on a trip with Ash's father. We've finally made up and might be getting back together," the happy woman giggled gleefully.

"Mooom, do you have to tell everybody that?" Ash moaned, his face meeting the surface of his desk.

There was happy clapping and whistling throughout the room. Even Misty cracked a small smile. "Wow, congratulations, Ash."

"Yeah yeah.."

"So, I'm going to have a substitute here while I'm gone. If it goes really well, I may not be back for a long time. Haha, anyways, class dismissed!"

The bell sounded.

* * *

Home Economics with Ms. Maple was next. Luckily, Misty had the class with Ash. Unfortunately, Gary followed them into the classroom as well. When the class was settled and the late bell rung, Mrs. Maple put on her cheerful smile.

"Now as well all know, Home Ec. is the study of keeping together a home in the areas of cooking, cleaning, health, and family management. Today we will start with cooking, and we're going to start with one of my famous salsa recipes!"

Everyone was handed a pink apron and kitchen tools.

"Now! Everyone pick up a tomato and start dicing...Mister Oak, will you be joining the class with salsa making?"

"Naah, I figure cooking is women's work."

"AGH!" With an angered grunt, Misty slammed her knife down on the tomato. The power of her arm forced a large crack in the black table.

Gary looked around. "Is there an animal in here?"

"M-misty c-calm down," Ash stammered, the hairs on the back of his neck raising.

"NO," she roared, pointing the sharp piece of metal at Gary. He was sitting rather calmly at the table next to them, his hand cradling his resting chin. "If you're going to be lazy AND a sexist jerk, don't do it in my prescence, GOT IT?"

He actually straightened in his seat, his curious eyes peeking out from underneath copper spikes of hair. A smirk broke through. "And what makes your prescence so important?"

"N-not important...d-dangerous!" Ash shuddered as the knife gleamed with the intent to stab.

"Hah! I'm not afraid of you."

Wrong answer. "Really?" Misty gave him a smirk of her own.

"Now, Misty, just put the knife down..." Mrs. Maple attempted to say.

The next thing Gary knew, a silver blur shot at him. His eyes were like two huge balls of white and he'd moved out of the way just in time for the knife to soar past his head. A few strands of his hair floated to the floor. Several words like PSYCHOPATH and CRAZY CHICK ran through Gary's head.

"OHMIGOD, SHE TRIED TO KILL GARY!" a girl screamed.

"GET HER!"

As a group of girls were about to jump up and ambush Misty, she shot them looks that could kill. They sat back down instantly; message recieved: Misty had anger problems.

"Alright everyone, back to salsa making!"

* * *

Mrs. Maple sighed, her delicate hand turning the knob to the Principal's door. She enterred the office, shutting the door lightly behind her and sat down in one of the comfortable leather seats.

"Mrs. Maple! What brings you here?" Samuel Oak grinned his cheesy grin. He was sixty years old with gray-white hair.

"It's about your grandson."

Mr. Oak's smile instantly fell. "What happened?"

"An attempted homicide."

"He tried to kill someone!"

"No, Misty Waterflower was also involved.

"Oh," his voice dropped. "Well we both know how she is." A large file of Misty's violent tendencies sat in one of the filing cabinets.

"Yes, and we both know how your grandson is. They're always bickering and she tried to throw a knife at him today!"

"OH MY GOD, is he hurt!"

"No, sir, he got out of the way just in time."

Mr. Oak sighed. "Phew. Must be the quick Oak reflexes in his blood!"

"Sir, please.. something needs to be done about those two. Misty needs to learn self-control and your son needs to downgrade his ego! His grades are slipping because he never participates, and Misty's record so far is going to prevent her from going to college, period, because she has so many offenses against her. If we can work it out bewteen these two, maybe we can get them to grow up."

"Hmm.." Mr. Oak itched his grey beard. "I don't really think it'll work."

"You haven't even tried!"

"Fine fine, we'll give them one more chance. If they screw up again, I'm going to assign them weekly counseling classes."

Mrs. Maple smiled. "Thank you sir."

He waved a dismissive hand as the bell for fifth period rang.

* * *

Misty pretended not to notice the series of glares directed at her as she moved through the lunchline with her friends Ash Ketchum and Tracey Sketchit. Tracey was a well known artist, particularly specializing in drawings and portraits.

"Misty, why is everyone looking at you like that?" Tracey asked when they found their usual table after getting food.

"Cuz they're stupid," Misty hissed. "They're acting like it's the first time I tried to kill Gary Oak."

"You tried... AGAIN?"

Misty quietly nibbled down on her cheese pizza. Then her eyes snapped to Gary's table, which was in the center of the cafeteria. He was the only male among good looking ladies.

"I wanna feed Gary his pizza!"

"No, I want to!"

"Ladies, ladies... there's enough of me to go around!"

"Agghh.." Misty growled, finishing her pizza in two quick bites.

Tracey and Ash watched in shock. _'H-how did she eat so FAST?' _Ash looked horrifed.

_'I think there might be a second attempt IN ONE DAY..' _Tracey thought.

"Misty, why do you care so much about Gary? I thought you said you were going to try and ignore him more?" Ash dared to question.

"I don't care! And I was going to try, but he's so arrogant.. how do you just ignore people like that?"

"We should change the subject," Tracey offered uncomfortably. "Misty, are you joining the swim team this year again?"

Misty broke out into a smile. "Huh? Oh of course I am. You guys know how much I love swimming."

"Cool! Tracey what about that Art show you were telling me about Fourth Period?" asked Ash.

"Oh right.. well the school finally decided to let the Art Department start the tradition of an Annual Art Show. I think I'm going to enter a drawing of mine."

"You should!" Misty encouraged.

He shrugged. "I don't know what to draw.. I haven't had any sort of inspiration lately. Unless.."

"Unless what?"

His face turned a delicate pink color. "Unless.. I could draw you, Misty."

"Of course you can! What are friends for?"

"Yeah... friends..."

* * *

The last class of the day; Gym, and with Ash as well. Which made Gary Oak's presence SLIGHTLY more tolerable. The class was running laps around the track today, and Misty and a kid named Brawley were typically ahead of everyone. Misty stopped with no warning, though, when she spotted Gary Oak on the sidelines...laying across a lawn chair...drinking lemonade...and being fanned off by a group of girls.

"Grr..." Misty's temper stirred and her hands curled into violent fists.

Ash came up beside her. "Come on, Misty, don't get mad again."

"Hmph," she huffed and continued jogging, only slowly so Ash could keep up.

"So, I think Tracey likes you," he said, partially trying to keep her mind off of Gary, and partially out of curiousity.

"Whaa?" She looked taken aback. "What are you talking about?"

"When you mentioned the friends thing, Tracey looked upset."

"Really?"

"You can't tell me you didn't notice..."

Misty sighed. There was only one boy she was interested in, and he was running right beside her. "I noticed, but I don't like Tracey like that."

"Are you sure? He's a really nice guy."

"I'm _positive_."

"Gaah! I ran out of lemonade!" Yelled Gary abruptly.

"Wow, that must really suck!" Misty screamed back at him.

* * *

After school, Ash and Misty took their regular route home on foot.

"Now that it's swimming season, I'll need to buy a new swimsuit.." said Misty.

"Yeah! I can't wait to go to your meets, Misty. You were always the best-"

A shot of red sped past them. The pair was sprayed with water from a puddle a convertible charged over.

"Haha, so long, losers!" Gary yelled, waving to them and laughing with some girls as the car drove off.

"That...JACKASS!"

"Ehh heh, it'll be okay, Misty.."

"NO! I'll make SURE my knife doesn't miss the next time!"

_'The next time?' _Oh**crap**.

* * *

"Come on inside, I'll help you dry off," Misty said with a smile, though her heart raced incredibly. Ash was coming into her house! Not that he hadn't been there before, but this would be the first time they'd ever gotten privacy there. Her sisters Daisy, Lily, and Violet had won a trip around the world and took it immediately, leaving Misty unsupervised.

Not that she cared; she wasn't close to them to begin with so she was used to being alone.

"Thanks Misty," Ash grinned, heading into the living room.

"Take off your shirt. I'm going to go get you a towel."

Misty retreated to the laundry room. She changed into a dry tee shirt, then grabbed a dry towel for Ash. She even grabbed one of his black tee shirts that he'd left over her house one day when they were swimming in the backyard.

She came back into the living room, astonished. Ash's toned build looked temptingly at her as blood rushed to her face.

"Misty? Are you okay?" He blinked.

"Y-yes! Here, your towel, and I found one of your old shirts in the laundry."

"Thanks, Misty."

Damn him. Was he really THAT oblivious, or was he not attracted to Misty in the way she was attracted to him? He dried himself off, even taking his cap off to dry his hair, then tugged on the dark tee shirt.

"You're a great pal, Misty."

"Yeah I know, Ash."

* * *

The next morning, the promise of a substitute English teacher had been buzzing throughout the classroom. Everyone was throwing paperballs, laughing, talking, and discussing how much hell this new Sub was going to recieve. Whenever Oak High had a substitute teacher, it was like everyone could become Gary Oaks for a day and do whatever the hell they wanted, say whatever the hell they wanted, and never get in trouble for it.

Misty smirked when Gary Oak was no where to be seen.

Exactly as the tardy bell rang, the door opened and the substitute came in. He was a tall man, possessing serious features that demanded respect, and wore a peculiar orange suit. A large, cream-colored cat followed beside him. The students actually grew quiet.

**"Sit down you insolent, pathetic little children," **his voice turned everyones' blood cold.

They sat down immediately.

"Who is this guy?" Ash whispered beside Misty.

First, he placed his large cat on his desk. Then the man went to the board, turning his back to everyone to write on the surface with chalk. When done, he stepped aside so the class could see.

**Boss Giovanni**

"That is how you will address me: Boss, or Boss Giovanni. Do you understand children?"

A small boy in the front of the class slowly rose his hand.

"What is it, child?" Boss Giovanni hissed.

"Y-you're not supposed to bring animals into the building.." He timidly pointed out.

"Hm.. what is your name, boy?"

"W-wally."

"Wally, is it? Hm... what is your grade in this class?"

"A+ sir."

"We'll make that an F- and a month of detention if you **ever** cross me like that again."

"You can't do that!" Misty cried out from several seats behind.

Boss Giovanni smirked. "Of course I can. I will soon be able to do anything I want."

"And how do you figure that?" Ash spoke up, trying to sound tough but not being able to match Misty's fearless voice.

"Because I am going to be the new ruler of this world."

...

Silence.

"C-come again?" someone asked.

"It is true," Boss Giovanni leaned against his desk and pet his cat faithfully on the head. "I am going to turn you all into my minions. You will all become pawns for my new plot to take over. We will be called... Team Rocket."

...

...

...

"...Good luck with that." a random classmate remarked.

Misty's eyes widened in disbelief. _'This guy is a total nutjob.'_

Suddenly, the door flew open.

"EEY IT'S PARTY TIME!"

Gary Oak would have make an appearance _now_, wouldn't he?

He suavely walked into the room, wearing his usual pair of black sunglasses. He tilted down, brushing a girl's chin with his finger flirtitiously. "Hey, Dawn, looking as beautiful as usual."

The blue-haired girl in the front blush. "T-thank you."

Gary, ignoring Boss Giovanni totally, slid in front of him and threw his arms out. "It's the moment you've all been waiting for! Gary Oak has arrived!"

...

...

...

"Sit down, jackass," Misty yelled from her seat.

"Hey! Don't call Gary that!"

"Yeah, you're just mad because he doesn't flirt with UGLY girls!"

"Yeah, but you're glad he flirts with easy ones, aren't you?" Misty bit out.

"HOW DARE YOU!"

"Shh! Don't make her mad, she might have a knife on her!"

**"SILENCE YOU DISGRACEFUL CHILDREN!"**

The room quieted. Gary turned around to face the substitute, then eyed the front board. "Boss Giovanni?"

"Yes, that's right little boy. Now sit down before you regret it."

"Huh! You must not know who I am," Gary smirked defiantly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"And who are you, intolerant boy?"

"Gary Oak! My grandfather's the Principal of this school and everyone obeys me."

"Not everyone..." Misty growled.

"Interesting... I must make you my assistant henchman."

"_What_?"

"Boss Giovanni says he's going to make us his minions in his plot to rule the world," Wally said.

"The hell he will," Gary said, taken aback.

"I will, now sit down, Assistant Henchman."

"I didn't agree to be your-"

**"Sit down."**

Gary found his usual seat in the back while winking to several girls on his way. The Boss cleared his throat and stroked his cat's fur.

"This is my cat, Persian. He is the Top Cat. Now onto other matters, what have you been working on for this class?"

"Romeo & Juliet, sir," said Wally.

"Hm...and what is this Romeo & Juliet about?"

"Two feuding families prevent the love of a girl named Juliet and a boy named-"

"Enough! Now I will teach you important matters; like **world domination**." He went over to the board and started writing with the chalk.

"This guy is a total lunatic," Gary said aloud, earning uproars of laughter.

Boss Giovanni turned his head sharply. "What was that?"

"Nothin'."

"Hmm.. okay, World Domination," The Boss said carefully, writing the two words on the board. Underneath it he wrote 'Team Rocket's Goal'. Then he grabbed a clipboard. "Alright, an important part of World Domination is followers. Without followers, you will not be able to complete your task. There is power in numbers, my children. But you must make sure that the followers you have are proven loyal and trustworthy. To do so, you must know of every follower in your group, what they are like, what their plans are, what they dislike and such. That is why I am going to pair you all off into groups of two. You will get to know your future teammates of Team Rocket. Understood?"

"I understand that you need to get checked into a mental hospital," Gary Oak snickered.

More laughter, which was quickly silenced by Boss Giovanni's deadly stare.

"Good, now I am going to decide the pairs at random."

* * *

"Ugh, I'm stuck with _you?_ He could have at least chose a girl with bigger breasts," Gary flicked his brown bangs from his face, sighing disappointedly.

"Shut up, jerk! I'm not here for you to look at, I'm here because of that crazy substitute."

Misty angrily plopped down in the desk in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm going to try and get Gramps to fire him. World Domination? He must not get out much."

Misty looked around, noticing some girls stabbing her with looks of hate. The red-head sighed. "They're mad that I'm over here, great. Just what I needed, more girls to hate me."

"I can't help that I'm this handsome and charming."

Misty scoffed. "Hardly."

Her gaze sadly floated toward Ash and a girl named Bianca. She watched them quietly as they talked and ended up sharing a hearty laugh together. Curious, Gary followed her depressed stare, then broke out into a wide smirk.

"You like Ashy-Boy?" he accused.

"N-no!" Misty flushed.

"I knew there was something wrong with you. No girl can resist my charm; Ash is just temporarily blinding you. You'll come around eventually."

"Excuse me?" Misty growled.

Gary leaned over his desk, smirking with delight. "You'll fall for me, Waterflower. Once you give up on Ash, you're gonna realize you want me soo badly."

She felt something on her knee. Was that... his hand?

Immediately, Misty's fist connected with Gary's face.

"DON'T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN, PUNK!"

"Ow! What the hell!"

Misty stood over Gary's body on the floor as he rubbed his reddening cheek.

**"Misty Waterflower, Gary Oak, to the Principal's Office, now."**

Misty turned with surprise. It was Mrs. Maple. "W-what?"

"You heard me. The both of you, to the Principal's Office. No more arguing."


	2. Chapter 2

Second Period had already drifted by, and Misty and Gary were still in the Main Office, awaiting punishment. Mrs. Maple had been in the Principal's Office for a while now, they were still deciding if counseling would settle their differences.

"How long are they going to be?" Misty whispered, her thumbs fiddling in her lap.

"This is all your fault," Gary muttered from one seat away down a row of chairs. He was still holding his sore cheek from when Misty had punched him.

Misty's eyes snapped into a glare at him. "_My_ fault? You shouldn't have touched me!"

"Whatever! You're the only one that's going to get in trouble. Gramps is going to let me off like he always does."

"Yeah we'll see about that."

Misty rolled her eyes and stared intensely at the Principal's door. _'If they were going to let him off the hook, we wouldn't be in here for this long. They're deciding something drastic, I bet. Oh no, I can't afford for this to be on my record..'_

Finally, Mrs. Maple opened the door. "You two may come in now."

"About time!" Gary swiftly stood up and entered the room, looking too optimistic for his own good. Misty slowly filed in behind him.

"Take a seat, you two," ordered Mr. Oak.

Misty sat in one of the leather chairs up by his desk.

"Look, Old Man, do I really need to be here? Just give Misty detention and we'll call it a day."

"Sit down, Gary."

Gary rose an eyebrow, noticing the seriousness in his grandfather's voice and slid into the chair beside Misty.

Mrs. Maple cleared her throat then began her story, "As you know, I came into the room to see how Mr. Giovanni was doing on his first day. When I walked in, I immediately saw these two bickering as usual and then Misty punched him."

"But you didn't notice the big fat CAT he had on his desk?"

"Stop your play-talk, Gary, this is a situation that needs to be dealt with," said Mr. Oak.

"Gramps, I'm-"

"I only punched him because he touched my knee," Misty spoke out. "In fact, I should press Sexual Harrassment charges!"

"Press charges against ME? You ATTACKED me!"

"It was out of self defense, moron!"

"Quiet! The both of you..." Mr. Oak sighed, "You two have been enough of a disruption in your classes. It's time I did something; many teachers have made this clear. Since compromise is out of the question, you two will have to learn how to deal with each other... respectfully."

Misty scoffed. "Respect my ass."

"Actually that's the only thing about you I respect..." Gary muttered, his eyes flirtitiously stalking Misty's figure.

"UGH! You see why I can't be around him?"

"Indeed," Mr. Oak nodded, "So I have decided to schedule guidance counseling sessions every Friday and Monday after school for an hour. Your counseler will be Mr. Brock, and you'll both have to attend the classes.. together. If you do not show up after school, you will be forced to during your lunch periods everyday."

"WHAT? I don't need counseling, I need to get away from HIM!" Misty stood and pointed down at Gary.

Gary jumped to his feet. "Gramps, you have to be kidding me! I'm not the one with anger problems, send HER to counseling."

"Enough," Mr. Oak waved his dismissive hand, "Get to class, you're already late for third period."

* * *

Outside of the Main Office, Misty was fuming. She snatched Gary by his shirt collar and slammed him up against a locker.

"You decide to be a perv, and I get in trouble? Tell your Grandfather to call off the counseling sessions," she threatened.

Gary smirked to hide that tiny bit of fear in him.

Tiny.

"You're stretching the shirt, babe."

He grabbed Misty's feeble wrist and pulled her hand from his collar. She failed to snatch her hand back, and Gary chuckled at the attempt as his hand held her wrist in an iron lock. He whirled her around in one swift moment, then spun so that he was now leaning over her and her back was leaning into the metal locker.

"I tried to get him to change his mind, but too many teachers are working against us. We have no choice."

Misty rebelled to this. "I don't care! There has to be something that you can..."

"Who dares to walk through the these hallways?" A woman's voice boomed through the hall.

Gary dropped Misty's wrist and pulled away from her. Two figures with black hooded cloaks on faced off with Misty and Gary.

"Who the hell are you guys?" Gary demanded.

"All us to introduce ourselves..." said a male's voice.

"To protect the hallways from devastation!"

"To unite all students without our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love.."

"To extend our reach to the stars above..."

A magenta-haired female tore off her cloak. "Jessie."

The blue-haired male ditched his cloak as well. "James."

"Team Rocket, blast off with the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or perpare to fight."

Jessie and James pointed to the pair, "That's right!"

...

...

...

Blink. Blink.

"Uhh..." Misty didn't know what to say.

"Ah, whatever, I'm going to class." Gary casually threw his arms behind his head, turned, and walked off.

"You little twerp!" Jessie yelled, "You're not going anywhere without showing me a hall pass first."

"Since when does Oak High even have Hall Monitors?" Misty inquired.

James smirked. "Since Boss Giovanni decided it!"

"And soon it's going to be Team Rocket High, and soon the world will only be Team Rocket," Jessie stated smugly.

"Well I think you're all nuts," Gary bluntly said, looking over his shoulder.

"SHUT UP YOU DUMB KID, OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND- Wait a minute..." Jessie paused, "Y-you're Gary Oak."

"_Everyone_ knows who I am."

Jessie and James turned their backs for a moment, then whispered to each other.

"That's The Boss's Assistant Henchman, he's very important," Jessie said in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, we're supposed to work under him and do whatever he says..." said James.

They whirled back around, smiling widely.

"Okay, we've had a change of heart!" said Jessie. "We're going to be your faithful Guardians in the school. Whatever you want us to do, we'll do it."

"Are you kidding me?" Misty was outraged. _'Why is everyone kissing up to HIM?'_

Gary chuckled deviously. "Sounds good to me. Now, go get me a soda!"

* * *

"Counseling?"

"Yep. Every Monday and Friday afterschool."

"Wow, bummer."

"At least it doesn't conflict with my Swim Team schedule."

Misty sighed as she pushed open the door to the school's outside pool area. It was the end of the school day, and she wanted to get some practice while Ash and Tracey watched. Ash agreed to time her and Tracey would be on the bleacher's drawing. The sound of female giggling filled her ears, and then _his_ voice.

"Ladies ladies, you're splashing around too much," Gary said while laughing.

Misty stared in disbelief. "OAK! What are you doing here?"

He was in the pool with two other bimbos. "Having a good time, what else?" He smugly eyed her.

"Get OUT of the pool!"

"No, why don't you take off all those unnecessary clothes and get in?"

"GRRR!"

"Gary, just get out," Ash insisted, "Misty's joining the swim team and she needs to practice her hardest."

"I don't see how I'm getting in the way. She can use that half of the pool, and I'll use this half."

"FINE," she snarled.

His amused gaze followed her figure to the girl's locker room. She eventually came out in a blue and white swim suit - Oak High's colors. Gary whistled rather fondly, which made her growl.

"Ignore him, Misty," Ash advised.

"Hmph, I will!" Misty took her stance on the pools diving board. She stretched a little and then sucked in a deep breath before diving in. She lingered under water, loving the feel of the chilly surroundings engulfing her body. _'This is why I love swimming... it's so calm and peaceful underwater, as the water cleanses you of everything. But for some reason.. I feel weak.. I feel like I'm slipping away...'_

Misty pushed her arms through the clear blue liquid. Her vision was growing rather foggy, and she knew it wasn't because of the water. _'I feel so tired.. am I imagining this? Maybe its because I've been stressed out lately..'_

She continued falling and falling, deeper into the water until the floor and her back met impact.

Everything faded into black.

* * *

"Misty! What the hell happened to her?"

"You act like I know, Ash-boy."

"She just fainted! Let's get her to a hospital!"

"Wait no, she's coming to!"

"H-huuh...?" Misty rolled to the side and spat up water across the ground, then she shifted onto her back and the first pair of eyes to meet her were Gary's.

He was trying to look calm, collected, but angst showed in his eyes.

Concern. Worry.

For her? Not likely.

"W-what happened?" She asked tiredly.

"You passed out," said Tracey, standing over her beside Ash.

Gary was closet to her, and on his knees. His face... masculine and hiding fear. His bare upper body... dripping wet and toned. His hair... drenched and drooping over his eyes.

Misty's face burned red when she realize that in the split moment of her fatigue, she was checking out Gary Oak.

"G-get away from me!" she screamed, scrambling to her feet.

"What the hell? I save you and that's all I get?" Gary frowned.

"I only pass out due to large amounts of stress, which, by the way, is probably YOUR fault!"

"Fine, if I'm stressing you out I'll just leave. Let's go girls," he nodded to the two girls he was originally with in the pool. Before disappearing through a door, his black eyes met Misty's green ones. She felt surprised when all traces of snobbery and amusement were gone. **He'd just wanted to make sure she was alright**.

* * *

"Gary!" Ash had caught Gary in the boy's locker room. Gary had finished taking a shower and walked over to his backpack with a towel hanging from his hips.

"What is it, Ashy-boy?" He sounded ticked off about something.

"I know you're mad at Misty, but I'm grateful that you saved her...actually I'm kind of mad you beat me to it..." Ash shyly admitted.

"If you came here to thank me, don't bother."

"Not exactly... look, Misty only has faint spells when she's under serious amounts of stress."

"Not my fault she has little to no self control." Gary had dried down with another towel, then pulled on a shirt and some jeans.

"That's just it, you're the only one who makes her that way. Well, you and her sisters."

Gary slung his backpack over his shoulder. "Get to the point, Ash."

"I want you to leave Misty alone. I don't want anything bad to happen to her because of you."

Gary smirked, approaching Ash and placing his hand on his shoulder. "**Make me**," he challenged before leaving the locker room.


End file.
